25/10/09 - Lands End - Speci Lake

Weight – 44lb 8oz (26lb – silvers)
Catch – 31 Perch, 8 Roach, 6 Chub, 4 Carp, 3 Bream, 1 F1, 1 Tench
Weather – Mostly sunny & windy – mild
Water Temp– 12.5c > 13.0c
Match – Open – 6th overall, 1st silvers

I had a decision to make this weekend, fish Saturday or Sunday. Saturdays weather forecast was for wind & rain, which I didn’t fancy much, whilst Sundays weather was much drier, but still windy. A quick call to Mike confirmed he had a match on Sunday, so I booked myself in.

At the draw there was a discussion whether to put all 15 of us on Match Lake or split it and put 4 on 1 bank of speci (25-32). Personally, wanted to include speci simply because I hadn’t fished it this year and needed some practice for the forthcoming winter league match in 2 weeks.

I found myself on peg 25, a sheltered corner on Speci Lake and when I arrived there was what I thought a big swirl at 16m – happy days. Then I noticed a pleasure angler on 39. The big swirl was in fact a method ball landing in my swim – oh great! I suggested he keep to his side of the lake, which to be fair to him he did, although he had to make a few visits to the margins in peg 40 when ever he over cast.

With peg 26 not in I had plenty of space and too many options. I could just about reach the island with 17m, I had plenty of open water and the margin down my left hand side. My opening gambit was to try 14.5m in open water straight in front and towards the island. After 20mins and no sign of carp, it was time to try down the LH edge on double caster. For the next hour I caught consistently, mostly 8oz perch plus a few small roach, whilst all the time flicking 4mms towards the island and 16m in open water.

The island swim did produce 1 carp, which came off as I was shipping back. I also had a few liners, so tried shallowing up with 3 maggots on the hook, but I still couldn’t get a proper bite and too be honest I’m not build well enough to fish 17m waiting for bites.

By the ½ way stage I had 12lb or so of silvers and needed to make a decision. Stick with silvers for the rest of the match or go chasing carp. Mike West on peg 29 already had a few and I was certain a few people would be catching on Match Lake, so I felt I was out of the running for a frame payout, so decided to stick with the silvers. With this in mind I felt a 2nd silvers swim would be required to rest my LH margin line and fed some micro pellet, a pinch of 4mms and a bit of corn at 11.5m for the skimmers.

As the session progressed bites from the margin swim weren’t as frequent, however the quality of the fish had increased, with bigger perch up 1¼lb, chub and few bonuses in the shape of a decent F1, tench as well as 3 carp.

My 11.5m line produced 3 skimmers & a carp on soft pellet, but I had to wait a while for a proper bite. I also had a couple of chub from under the bush immediately to my right.

Come the end of the match I thought I was in with a good shout of winning the silvers, but not knowing how Match Lake fished I would have to wait to find out. 26lb was slightly more than I expected and I would have been disappointed not to have picked up some coin.

In total I fed 1½pt of caster, mostly via a tosspot, mixed with some atomic cloud and had a really nice days fishing. In the end the I won the silvers quite convincingly, with Nicky Collier taking 17lb from peg 6, however he did win the match with 87lb.

A special mention for Nick Merry, who doesn’t know the venue that well, but has decided to fish the Winter League. His 1st match was on peg 31 on speci, a flyer, which he didn’t make the most of. Today he drew peg 32, had 73lb for 3rd overall, including a munter of 17lb 13oz. At least "Mr Angry" didn’t come out.